The present invention relates to techniques for analyzing a body of data. More specifically, the invention relates to techniques that analyze an image by operating on regions of the image.
Ullman, S., "Visual Routines," Cognition, Vol. 18, 1984, pp. 97-159, in section 3.2 beginning on page 123, discusses shifting the processing focus. Section 3.3, beginning on page 129, discusses indexing, describing various ways in which specific locations could be selected for further processing. On a digital computer, the selection could be made by providing the coordinates of the next location to be processed. Indexing, on the other hand, can be described as a shift of the processing focus to special odd-man-out locations, detected in parallel and that serve as anchor points for application of visual routines. Properties such as motion, orientation, and color might be used for indexing, by finding locations that are sufficiently different from their surroundings. Pages 132-134 discuss shifting the processing focus to an indexable location using a central unit to which local detectors provide signals, with the signal from the local detector that detects the odd-man-out inhibiting signals from other local detectors. This scheme could be extended to generate successive shifts of processing focus from one element to another, in an order that depends on the strength of their signals. There is evidence for the use of similarity enhancement, in which, when the processing focus is centered on a given item, similar items become more likely to be processed next.